The Sole Proprietor has been bugging Jim at work to submit a recipe for the recipe section. Jim actually prepares desserts with some enthusiasm and will occasionally bring one to work for one or another pot luck with excellent results (excellent results ='s gone in a second). The Sole Proprietor will try to post it by the time he leaves on Wednesday and when he gets back, he'll start bugging him about another one.

The recipe section is kind of an odd animal for the Sole Proprietor. He goes in streaks as far as cooking goes. He's not even sure he likes it, although when he was younger and lived a less solitary life, he liked to entertain friends and cooking for his guests was pretty nice. So why not just deep six the thing and not worry about it? Well, why not just deep six the Red Ink Railroad and not worry about it as well? The answer seems to be because he doesn't want to, that he may one day fire up an interest again, and, if one day never comes, so what?

He still has all the cooking equipment. He still subscribes to at least one cooking magazine, the latest issue of which just happened to arrive in the mail today (Cook's Illustrated). He'll read it and maybe he'll prepare something from it. An article they did on lemonade some issues back was worth the entire subscription. The Sole Proprietor is fond of lemonade.

Rien Post did a nice spoof of the Sole Proprietor's site in his December 6th entry, the spoof incorporated into both the choice of the banner photograph and the caption at the bottom. The Sole Proprietor had a lot of fun and feels honored R.P. took the time and had the interest to play. The Sole Proprietor will buy a book about the Netherlands and read it to atone for thinking that Holland and the Netherlands were interchangeable. He will then be one of three Americans in this world who will know the difference. Once our ambassador to the Netherlands figures that out, there will be four. Progress! So be it.

The Sole Proprietor isn't sure if we grow a lot of tulips here in California, but suspects we do. He used to receive a catalog from a tulip bulb mail order operation located in the Netherlands and would think about ordering some every now and then, a fellow can always use some tulips after all, but the Sole Proprietor is not a gardener and the catalog stopped coming since he never used it.

Maybe he'll become a gardener one day (keeps you at home and if you're old enough, makes for more than enough excitement) and, if he does, he will overdo it the way he overdoes everything else. Either way, if that day comes, he will order his tulip bulbs from Queen Beatrix, who, he is reliably informed, hoards the entire national production under her castle floor and doles out bulbs to American tourists during the day and sells them mail order at night. (No offense meant to her majesty. Americans are nervous around monarchs, particularly ones who don't make the tabloids the way the British do.)

Enough. Time to look at recipes. The digital camera is supposed to come tomorrow. If it does, he promises a picture. Or two.